Dragonflight: Part 3, Chapter 1
|width="30%"| |width="40%"|' Part 3' |width="30%"| |} Most of part three takes place in the Turn 9P1 (2508 AL) This chapter includes scenes from the Turns 2LI 438 and 448 (2495 and 2505 AL) R'gul and F'lar are arguing. R'gul still doubts that Thread will return, despite the Red Star having been bracketed by the Eye Stone, a sure sign, according to the old teaching ballads, that the return of Thread is imminent. R'gul refuses to believe that Thread will return after more than 400 Turns. F'lar throws back the verse The Finger points/At an Eye blood-red. R'gul remains one of the few remaining skeptics. F'lar, in exasperation, tells R'gul that if he doesn't follow his lead, he can leave the Weyr and take up residence elsewhere. F'lar points out that there had been other Long Intervals before, and other times when dragonkind had all but died out, because of skeptics like R'gul*. R'gul decides to bide his time, waiting for F'lar's inevitable downfall. He reluctantly consents to follow F'lar's policies. F'lar then turns to other matters. Among other orders, he assigns D'nol and S'lan to keep an eye out for likely boys for Impression, as there are not enough lads in the Weyr for the clutch he expects Ramoth to lay. And, he adds, it's better to have young men rather than boys. F'lar appears to be planning to resettle the abandoned Weyrs, starting with . F'lar is irritated that Lessa seems unable to warm up to him. It turned out that she was a virgin when Ramoth went into heat, making her first time a violent experience, what with dragon-induced passions. F'lar tells Lessa that he'll take her out on her first practice going between when the other dragons leave. Lessa mentions that Kylara's child had been born. She suspected that F'lar was the father, which, he privately admitted, was a possibility. She had seduced him earlier, though now that he was Weyrleader, he rebuffed her attempts to continue the relationship. Her son was named T'kil**. Lessa tells F'lar of her past premonitions, including the one the day of Fax's invasion. F'lar begins Lessa's between lessons. Lessa is excited to be able to go between. Ramoth doesn't see the excitement. It was certainly preferable to flying straight, but she felt the practice back and forth was rather dull. After practicing all day, Lessa decides to try going to . She inadvertantly discovers the ability to "time it". She is confused, as it is the wrong season, and an armed band is approaching the Hold. She realizes that her premonition on that fateful morning was caused by herself. She returns, panicked, to the Star Stone. F'lar is not there. Ramoth says that he'd probably followed her to Ruatha, and so Lessa tries to return, but, again, inadvertantly appears on the day that F'lar had discovered Lessa. She returns again, frightened, to the Weyr. Mnementh and F'lar reappear, ordering Lessa to return to her weyr. Lessa complies. In the weyr, Lessa explains what happened. F'lar is amazed by this revelation of the ability to go between Times. F'lar begins thinking about how this ability could be put to good use by the Weyr, feeling that there must be something that could be done. F'lar decides to try Lessa's discovery himself. In his experiment, he, like Lessa, became his own premonition - this time of the certainty that he would be Weyrleader some day. Characters Introduced *T'kil - son of Kylara (and T'bor?) Characters Appearing *D'nol *Fax *F'lar *F'nor *K'net *Lessa *R'gul *S'lan *S'lel *T'bor *T'sum Characters Mentioned *F'lon *Jora *Kylara *Lytol *Manora *This seems to contradict later books, which definitively state that there had only been one other Long Interval, and which strongly imply that the dragons had never been so few before **A definite inconsistency with later novels, in which the apostrophe is taken after Impression. Category:Dragonflight